We pinged a broker, who wishes to remain anonymous, to explain
why this data leak might impact some traders. (Note: His
response has been lightly edited for clarity)

"I would say that there is nothing investors and traders hate
more than uncertainty....and when the numbers come out 30 minutes
early it probably screwed up more traders than it helped, unless
however you KNEW that they were going to be leaked out 30 minutes
early, I'm sure they will investigate how it happened and
possibly check if anyone traded off it."

We called the NAR this morning to find out why the numbers came
out ahead of the embargo.

A spokesman and a spokeswoman both told us that what apparently
happened was someone at the NAR posted the release on the website
ahead of time by mistake, but there wasn't a link to click on.

Basically, the URL was set, but it was technically invisible
unless you knew what to look for.

The release evidently wasn't up very long, but "in that short
period of time, Bloomberg captured it."

While this is the first time this has ever happened at the NAR,
they're not the first to have information reported before it's
publicly released.

"Historically, this is something that we're very careful about.
The SEC has had
several discussions with us previously," an NAR spokesman told
us.

He explained to us that the numbers are released in a lock-up for
the general media. Basically, this is a news briefing that
starts at 9:30 a.m. with 10 minutes of Q&A with no outside
communication. Meanwhile, the numbers are posted on the
website at 10 a.m. ET once the embargo is up.